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Election overtime: A winless Wednesday?

Counting absentee and provisional ballots could prolong the end of a close election. | AP Photo

“If it comes down to Ohio we’re not even talking about a recount, we’re looking at a delay of a couple weeks if it’s potentially very close because there are going to be a whole lot of provisional ballots,” said Rick Hasen, a law and political science professor at the University of California-Irvine and the author of “The Voting Wars.”

How many is a lot? In 2008, Ohio voters cast more than 204,000 provisional ballots — some 19 percent of which got rejected later. A smaller portion of its absentee ballots, 1.6 percent, also got rejected.

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As far as timing goes, Ohio cannot count its provisional ballots until Nov. 17 and must wrap up by Nov. 27.

This year, “in a closely-contested election, the legitimacy of such ballots would almost certainly become a subject of dispute between the parties,” Norden wrote.

Nine of the 10 battleground states Norden surveyed — New Hampshire is the exception — have provisional voting.

The provisional ballot issue has already flared up at the presidential level in recent years.

In 2004, Democrat John Kerry did not concede until the day after the election after briefly holding out hope that provisional ballots could close his deficit in Ohio. His campaign ultimately concluded that it wouldn’t be enough to alter the outcome.

Four year later, provisional and absentee ballot counting held up held up Missouri’s result for weeks — but it largely went under the radar since Republican John McCain’s ultimate victory wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the Electoral College.

“I call it the new normal because we have this new world of provisional voting in light of the Help America Vote Act,” said Edward Foley, director of Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law election program.

“If you combine the concept of a very competitive election that’s working properly, and your provisional voting system, you build that into the electoral process, it’s inevitable you’re going to get elections that depend on provisional ballots to know the outcome,” Foley said. “That’s not a sign of a system going wrong. It’s a sign of the system working as intended, as built.”

Lawsuits

If recounts or provisional ballots aren’t worrisome enough, consider the prospect of lawsuits, especially in a year that’s been rife with voting-access concerns.

“If litigation doesn’t kind of take over and have a life of its own, you can imagine not knowing the answer for a week or two,” Foley said. “If they keep fighting after certification, all bets are off until you get to the December deadline set by federal law.”

A legal skirmish has already occurred in Florida over the early voting deadline, and in Ohio, a judge set a hearing for Wednesday amid questions about provisional ballot counting procedures.

Lawyers for both campaigns are already virtually sitting on the tarmac, coiled and ready to respond in the event of another Bush-Gore Florida 2000 standoff.

Foley said there’s an important distinction to make between “the provisional ballot, absentee process working as planned and designed, as expected, in the aftermath that’s starting on Nov. 7 compared to that whole process going awry because of lawsuits flying all over the place, and deadlines not being met and people debating what the proper vote counting rules are.”

“That’s where you have a real problem. That’s a problem. That’s not the system working appropriately.”

It all depends on two things: 1) how widespread Democrat fraud is this time, and 2) whether the Democrats continue to suppress the military vote (which is overwhelming pro-Romney.)

The only fraud discovered this election has been in a group hired by the Republican Party. It's funny. The Republican-dominated states passed voter suppression laws, pretending they did it to ward off voter fraud. But when challenged, the Republicans couldn't provide the courts with evidence of voter fraud. Now Republicans have evidence -- the very people they hired!

Two, the military vote will go heavily for President Obama, our fearless leader who orchestrated the take-down of bin Laden and the decimation of al-Qaeda. You think our military men and women are stupid? They know the business stiff in a suit never once thanked them for their service in his acceptance speech. They noticed the whole Republican Convention was designed to exclude and ignore our military. It was insulting, much as the idea of Romney as Commander-in-Chief.

Voter suppression alive and well and resides in Florida, Rick Scott disobeying a direct court order. Watch the Fed decend on Florida and Ohio. Good old Politico ignores the 2 and 3 hour wait in minority areas in Florida and instead is reporting on trivial and other idiocy like Obama jokingly compares himself to Jay-Z, do we really want to know this.

Politico still pushing the Republican agenda.

Poll watchers from groups ostensibly targeting voter fraud are headed primarily to minority voting precincts on Election Day, lending support to the argument that their real goal is to suppress the African-American and Latino vote.

A partial list of precincts targeted by a Pittsburgh Tea Party group working on behalf of the Republican Party shows that nearly 80 percent of the voters in those precincts are African-American, compared to 13 percent countywide, according to civil rights and union groups who on Monday called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate.

Ever since Obamacare has been jammed down our throats Pundits have been trying to devise a Metric to predict election results. Almost all have failed miserably, Why, because The Obama Administration has successfully divided the Electorate as they wanted to.

By all rights with that in mind the only conceivable data to go on is the last two election cycles.

Early voting is over and Dems have come up short. Tomorrow will be the day of Independents, the TEA Party and Republicans.

Oh, it is going to be loads of fun! But you need to heed the warnings of Stephanie Cutter:

“Keep calm and tweet on,” Ms. Cutter said. “So, no matter what you hear tomorrow about turnout in Republican counties or exit polls, particularly early in the day, please remember and remind your readers that, because of early votes, we’re where we need to be to win….I don’t think there’s going to be official exits until the end of the day, but if things leak out that aren’t validated or weighted, please stay calm.”

The only problem is that everyone knows that the banked votes line is a lie (the one thing Cutter is good at). They reported tonight on one state where Obama is up by 3% in early voting. He was up 18% against McCain in that same state in 08. I forget if that state was OH or WI. And the dems have been cannabilizing election day

Beyond that Fox reported tonight Romneys project Orca. He has 6,000 of us in battleground polling stations that will be uploading real time voting so they will know much much more accurately than exit polls exactly what is going on. Not that he would leak those results. That would be an unfair advantage.

Don't call this Election until the Military gets their votes in! Shameful and a Disgrace that this has been done to the ones who's vote should get counted above all else! THIS IS JUST DESPICABLE ! IF WE CAN WAIT ON HANGING CHADS, WE CAN WAIT FOR OUR WARRIORS TO HAVE THEIR SAY ! THIS FROOOOOST ME ! DON'T VOTE FOR THESE EVIL PEOPLE IN POWER NOW, PEOPLE !

At 2:25 the NAACP 3 representatives arrived with probably 50 cases of bottled water and began loading them on dollies handing them out to people standing in line. They were talking to them about flying to Ohio to promote Barack Obama. They were stirring the crowd. The crowd was complaining about the lines. It was getting loud. I went to the PJ and let her know that it was not appropriate that they were in the building handing out water. She ignored me. I repeated my statement. She told me that she would handle it. She did nothing. I then went to the AJ and he stood up, walked over to another table and then sat down. I then walked into the waiting room and they were reloading another dolly with more cases of water. The NAACP began hand picking people out of the lines and began moving these people to the front of the line. The people were getting mad and asking why were these people being moved to the front of the line. All of a sudden one of the clerks, Dayan said that someone wanted to speak to me on the phone. It was someone from downtown. I got on the phone and she said she was from downtown and that I needed to stand down that it was ok for the NAACP to be within 100 ft. and they could hand out water. I told her that the NAACP was inside the building, wearing the NAACP clothing and caps and were handing out water and moving people from the lines to the front of the lines. They said, “they are in the building”, let me talk to Dayan. Dayan was told to tell them to turn their clothes inside out. He went to them and instructed them to do that. They told him that they didn’t have to do that and they weren’t going to stop. They didn’t. They moved people to the front of the line for the rest of the evening.

The PJ and AJ never stopped anything. The NAACP basically ran this poll location and the judges did nothing about it.

At 5:25 I was asked to assist to go outside to do a curbside vote. I went outside with clerk Mr. Lee. On our way inside Mr. Lee said, “look, Mr. Sylvester Turner is back”. He was standing 10 ft. outside the door talking to voters. The PJ was standing right inside the door talking to the NAACP people. I walked up to her and said, “I want you to know that Mr. Turner is back and is outside talking to voters”. She said nothing. I also went to the AJ and noticed him. He did nothing. Five minutes later the PJ came up to me and said that the voters are complaining that when I do curb side that they said that I am watching what they are voting and that I may be asked to leave. I told her that there is no way that I can see what they are voting since I am standing at the front of their vehicles and it is probably being said because I told you about Mr. Turner. If she would like to speak with Mr. Lee about where I stand, that would be one. Five minutes later, The PJ came to me and said that Mr. Turner would like for me to come outside, he would like to speak to me. I looked at her and said, “Ms. Rose, I am a poll watcher, that is the most ridiculous request I have ever heard”. I turned and walked away.

Sadly, all too stupid. Newly elected Republicants plan to hike taxes on ordinary people in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.

In 12 States across the USA the political wing of the Tea Party Terrorists have started to implement moves to shift the tax burden from corporations and the very wealthyon to ordinary workers.

The Tea Party Terrorists who promised their own special "second amendment solutions" to elections if they did not get their own way now face huge hikes in tax in order to pay for millionaire tax cuts.

Three States run by the political wing of the Tea Party Terrorists are making their intentions obvious.

MAINE: Tea Party Gov. Paul LePageâ??s (I) tax reform package would raise the stateâ??s estate tax exemption from $1 million to $2 million â?? allowing four hundred of the stateâ??s wealthiest estates to escape taxation. At the same time, the tax plan would raise property taxes on middle class Mainers while freezing health care funding for working parents, cutting money for schools, and raising the retirement age for public workers. Republican legislators want to go even further, and are currently considering eliminating the estate tax altogether.

OHIO: In January, House Speaker William Batchelder (R) called Gov. John Kasichâ??s (R) proposal to completely eliminate the estate tax one of the Republican-controlled legislatureâ??s â??top priorities.â?? But already, the bill has garnered strong opposition from local governments, who depend on estate tax revenue and are already concerned state spending cuts. Even while finding room for estate tax reductions, Kasichâ??s proposed budget cuts 25 percent of funding for local schools, $427 million for nursing homes, $1 million for food banks, $12 million from childrenâ??s hospitals, and $15.9 million from an adoption program for children with special needs.

NEW JERSEY: In his 2011 budget proposal, Gov. Chris Christie called for raising the stateâ??s estate tax exemption from $675,000 to $1 million even while proposing cuts to the stateâ??s Earned Income Tax Credit and homestead rebates for working poor families. And last year Christie vetoed a bill passed by the Legislature that would have raised taxes on the stateâ??s millionaires to help fund property tax relief for Main Street.

So that is the way to go. Big tax cuts for billionaires and tax hikes for every day real people who are in fact the REAL America, not matter what Tea Party Terrorist Leaders say.

The de-facto Leader of the Tea Party Terrorists was going to make a statement but she quit somewhere outside of the West Bank.

Sorry Republicants you asked for this. Sadly more will suffer but those who voted for this deserve it.

(( Internal Department of Justice emails obtained by The Daily Caller show Attorney General Eric Holder’s communications staff has collaborated with the left-wing advocacy group Media Matters for America in an attempt to quell news stories about scandals plaguing Holder and America’s top law enforcement agency.

Dozens of pages of emails between DOJ Office of Public Affairs Director Tracy Schmaler and Media Matters staffers show Schmaler, Holder’s top press defender, working with Media Matters to attack reporters covering DOJ scandals. TheDC obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Emails sent in September and November 2010 show Schmaler working with Media Matters staffer Jeremy Holden on attacking news coverage of the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation scandal.))

...

(("Several media outlets, including Fox News this morning, are claiming that Fast and Furious was paid for with stimulus dollars,” Gertz wrote to Schmaler. “My research suggests that this is not true, and I was hoping you’d be able to confirm that.”

Gertz added that he needed a response “by 1 p.m.” because he thought the issue was “likely to snowball if it isn’t stopped.”

In less than two hours, Schmaler responded with an answer from her “budget folks” in DOJ. “You’re right,” she told Gertz, before explaining why she thought so.

At 1:13 p.m., Gertz responded, writing, “Thanks again for your help, here’s the piece” and adding a link to his online article.

An email chain from Sept. 9, 2011, shows Gertz and Schmaler expressing concern over an upcoming Fox News segment on Fast and Furious.

“This is Vanderboegh, who broke the story in the first place and has contacts in the media and at [the House] Oversight [commission]. Any idea what it’s about?” Gertz wrote to Schmaler at 8:29 a.m. that day in an email that quoted conservative blogger Mike Vanderboegh’s website: “FOX Got ‘Em. Huge Gunwalker Story Breaking Later This Morning.”

Gertz responded at 9:25 a.m. with a guess that if it were something that had already been out, it would have been a story on Indiana gun sales.

Fox News played its tease shortly after of a segment promising new information on Fast and Furious, and at 10:18 a.m. Gertz sent the text of Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer’s tease to Schmaler.

“Also two weapons found at the scene where Border Agent Brian, uh, Terry was murdered linked to a botched federal gunrunning sting operation, and today the plot thickens once again,” Gertz quoted Hemmer as saying. ...))

Barack Obama's 2,000+ Fast & Furious Guns are being used to murder hundreds and hundreds of innocent people in Mexico and America.

Fast and Furious Scandal: New Details Emerge on How the U.S. Government Armed Mexican Drug Cartels

(( On January 30, 2010, a commando of at least 20 hit men parked themselves outside a birthday party of high school and college students in Villas de Salvarcar, Ciudad Juarez. Near midnight, the assassins, later identified as hired guns for the Mexican cartel La Linea, broke into a one-story house and opened fire on a gathering of nearly 60 teenagers. Outside, lookouts gunned down a screaming neighbor and several students who had managed to escape. Fourteen young men and women were killed, and 12 more were wounded before the hit men finally fled.

Indirectly, the United States government played a role in the massacre by supplying some of the firearms used by the cartel murderers. Three of the high caliber weapons fired that night in Villas de Salvarcar were linked to a gun tracing operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), according to a Mexican army document obtained exclusively by Univision News.

Univision News identified a total of 57 more previously unreported firearms that were bought by straw purchasers monitored by ATF during Operation Fast and Furious, and then recovered in Mexico in sites related to murders, kidnappings, and at least one other massacre.))

http://abcnews.go.com/A...

HERE ARE 5 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT OPERATION FAST AND FURIOUS

1. 57 Previously Unreported Guns From Fast and Furious Discovered

One of the most explosive revelations made in the Univision News special involves 57 previously unreported firearms from Fast and Furious that were reportedly used in a number of murders and kidnappings.

After cross-referencing the serial numbers of guns used in Fast and Furious against guns confiscated in Mexico, Univision found that about 100 guns were used in crimes and 57 of the guns were not included in an official congressional investigation.

2. Fast and Furious Guns Used in Two Grisly Massacres

On January 30, 2010, a commando of at least 20 hit men parked themselves outside a birthday party of high school and college students in Villas de Salvarcar, Ciudad Juarez. Near midnight, the assassins, later identified as hired guns for the Mexican cartel La Linea, broke into a one-story house and opened fire on a gathering of nearly 60 teenagers. Outside, lookouts gunned down a screaming neighbor and several students who had managed to escape. Fourteen young men and women were killed, and 12 more were wounded before the hit men finally fled.

The other bloody attack linked to Fast and Furious guns occurred in September 2009 when members of a Mexican drug cartel murdered 18 young men at Salvarcar and El Aliviane, a rehab center in Ciudad Juarez, according to the report.

3. U.S. Gun-Walking Operations Conducted in Additional States, Expanded to Other Countries

The Univision News report also revealed that other ATF offices outside of Arizona initiated similar gunrunning programs.

An ATF field division in Florida reportedly launched “Operation Castaway,” which put weapons in the hands of criminals in Colombia, Honduras and Venezuela, according to Hugh Crumpler, the lead informant in the case, who talked to Univision News from a prison cell.

4. ‘Confirmed’: Jaime Zapata Was Killed With Weapons From U.S. Gun-Walking Operation

Slain ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata. In Texas, even more weapons were allowed to cross into Mexico under ATF supervision, according to court documents and testimony of Magdalena Avila Villalobos, the sister of an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who exchanged gunfire with cartel hit men alongside Jaime Zapata on a rural highway in Mexico in February 2011. Zapata was killed during the confrontation.

Villalobos told Univision News the guns that killed Zapata, and almost killed her brother, were “not from Arizona and Fast and Furious” but from a “very similar operation.”

“Those weapons that have been recovered, it’s been confirmed that they were weapons used in the shootout that killed Jaime Zapata and wounded Victor Avila,” she said.

5. Mexico’s Cartel Violence Spiked in 2009 During Fast and Furious

Operation Fast and Furious was supposedly a program run solely by ATF that allowed nearly 2,000 guns to “walk” out of the United States and into the hands of high-ranking cartel members so they could be tracked and federal agencies could dismantle the drug trafficking organizations. But that’s not how it worked out. The agency ultimately lost track of the firearms, leaving Mexico’s powerful drug cartels even better equipped to kill.

Mexico experienced a spike in cartel violence in 2009 while Fast and Furious was in full swing, as the gangs fought for control of various territories, Univision News reports.

Fast and Furious became public after U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed in a gunfight with Mexican thugs in December of 2010. Congressional investigators, with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) leading the way, pushed for investigations and hearings, only to be stonewalled by Attorney General Eric Holder, the Justice Department and the White House, who claim Republicans’ interest in Fast and Furious is only political theater.

President Barack Obama moved to shield Holder and the Justice Department by invoking executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been after for years.

Meanwhile, officials in Mexico are looking for answers because for them, Fast and Furious isn’t some metaphorical chess piece that they are manipulating for political gain. The fact of the matter is, they have lost hundreds of Mexican citizens as a result of the U.S.-run Fast and Furious — and they want the truth.

“Americans are not often moved by the pain of those outside [their country]…But they are moved by the pain of their own. Well, turn around and watch the massacres,” Javier Sicilia, a Mexican poet who lost his son due to cartel violence, told Univision News.

Shameful and a Disgrace that this has been done to the ones who's vote should get counted above all else!

I assume you're talking about what is going on in Florida and the attempts to suppress the black and poor vote there and elsewhere. You're right, African-American votes should get counted above all others' considering what we as a country did to them ... slavery, Jim Crow, denying them the vote, poll taxes, intimidation to prevent them for voting, and now this. Thank you for this post mlwm.